Madge Easton Anderson

Madge Easton Anderson (24 April 1896 - 1982) was a Scottish lawyer. She was the first woman admitted to practise as a professional lawyer in the UK, when she qualified as a solicitor in Scotland in 1920.[1]

Life

Anderson was born on 24 April 1896 in Glasgow. Her father, Robert Easton, made surgical instruments.[1]

She was educated at Hutcheson's Grammar School, and from 1913 studied at the University of Glasgow. She graduated with an MA in 1916, a BL in 1919 and an LLB in 1920. She was the first woman to graduate from the University with a degree in law.[1] She was however not the first law graduate in Scotland: Eveline MacLaren and Josephine Gordon Stuart graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Edinburgh some years earlier, but at that time women were prohibited from practising as lawyers.[2]

On 12 May 1917 she began working as an apprentice law agentat the practice of Maclay Murray & Spens.[3] In 1920, Anderson was the first woman to be admitted to the legal profession in the United Kingdom following the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, when she was admitted as a law agent in Scotland (the Scottish Law Agents Society was formed in 1884; the Law Society of Scotland was not created until 1949).

Her application for admission as a law agent was initially refused, because the necessary three years of training began before the passing of the Act, and her indenture of training was not properly registered — registration was refused in 1917 because she was a woman. She appealed to the Court of Session, and her petition was reported to the Inner House, First Division, and heard in December 1920, by the Lord President, Lord Mackenzie, Lord Skerrington and Lord Cullen. The opinion of the Lord Ordinary Lord Ashmore criticised the English terminology used in the Act, but concluded that she was entitled to have her petition granted, and the court upheld her appeal.[4]

The details of her later life remain obscure.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Biography of Madge Easton Anderson". University of Glasgow Story. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  2. ↑ "First women LLBs centenary | Scots Law News". www.sln.law.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  3. ↑ "Letter: The progress of women in the legal profession". Scottish Legal News. 2017-11-30. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  4. ↑ [1921] SLT 48

Notes

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